frequent water fountains and springs provide a safe source of drinking water.
A wide variety of animals and plants can be found. The lower meadows are carpeted with wild flowers in late spring, while once the snow disappears the upper slopes come alive with alpine plants, including edelweiss and gentian. Chamois, ibex and marmots can be seen throughout the route. However, as you are walking the Eagle’s Way, the creature you will most want to find is likely to be the eponymous golden eagle. Keep a good lookout and you may see one soaring around the highest peaks. If, however, wild eagles prove illusive, the route passes Innsbruck’s Alpine zoo, where there are two captive golden eagles.
Golden eagle in Innsbruck Alpen zoo (Stage 12a)
The Tyrol tourist organisation describes the Adlerweg as ‘arguably the most beautiful long-distance trail in Austria’. Does it live up to this claim? That is for you to decide. Walk it and see!
Background
Austria
Located in the centre of the continent straddling the Alps, Austria is Europe’s 17th largest country by size, and, with 8.3 million inhabitants, its 18th by population. It shares borders with Germany (with which it also shares a common language), the Czech Republic, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Its position with the Danube, one of Europe’s most important waterways, to the north, and the Brenner, the most accessible alpine pass, to the south, has made Austria the crossroads of central Europe.
Portrait of Hapsburg Empress Maria Theresa in Hofburg gallery, Innsbruck (Stage 12a)
During the 18th and 19th centuries, Austria’s political, economic and military significance surpassed its modest size. After the turning back of Islamic incursions into Europe at the battle of Vienna (1683), a long period of rule by one family enabled Austria to maintain strong stable government and build a pan-European empire. The Hapsburg emperors ruled until defeat in World War 1 led to the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.
Interior of St Leonhard’s Kapelle, Barnstatt (Stage 2)
A period of economic and political uncertainty during the 1920s and 1930s, (when many mountain refuges fell into disrepair), was followed by the Anschluss political union with Germany in 1938 and Austrian participation on the Axis side in World War 2. After the war, government was briefly divided between the victorious allied powers until the current republic was established in 1955. Austria joined the EU in 1995 and the subsequent signing of the Schengen Agreement led to the removal of border controls.
Austria is a federal republic of nine states. The majority of the population lives in four lowland states, including the capital Vienna, to the north and east of the country. Population density in the alpine states of the south and west, including Tyrol, is much lower.
Tyrol
Tyrol sits southwest of the bulk of Austria, between the states of Salzburg (east) and Voralberg (west). Its dominant feature is the deep west-to-east gash of the Inn valley between the north limestone Alps (Nordlichen Kalkalpen) and the central high Alps, with most of the 700,000 population living along this axis. Tyrol’s northern border, with Germany, runs through the N Kalkalpen, and its southern, Italian, border through the central Alps.
Tyrol’s emergence as an identifiable state began in the 11th century when the Counts of Tirol from Meran (today Merano in northern Italy) gradually extended their control over the whole region. When the last Count (or rather Countess) died heirless, control passed to the Austrian Hapsburgs with Tyrol becoming part of Austria in 1363. Apart from a brief period of Bavarian rule during the Napoleonic wars it has remained Austrian ever since. However, Tyrol today is much smaller than Hapsburg Tyrol, as the peace treaties that concluded WW1 transferred sovereignty over Sud Tirol and Triente to Italy.
Apart from Reutte in the northwest and Kitzbuhel in the east, the main towns spread along the Inn valley from Kufstein and Schwaz in the lower valley, through Innsbruck in the centre, to Imst and Landeck in the upper valley. By far the largest town is the state capital, Innsbruck.
Tyrol is a region of open countryside. Only 13% of the state has been developed for human habitation, with 35% forest, 30% pasture and 22% barren mountains. As a result the Tyrolean economy has been based on agriculture (mostly dairy farming), timber and mining (silver, lead, zinc, salt, limestone, silica sand and shale oil). Secondary industries have grown up using these raw materials, including wooden building materials, glass, cement and chemicals. Other light industry, originally based upon the ready availability of power from mountain streams but now using hydro-electric power, includes iron smelting, agricultural tools and machinery, railway carriages and electric power generators. In the 20th century, year round tourism (winter sports and summer touring) became a major part of the economy, while one of the largest employers in Innsbruck is the university.
Inn valley and North Kalkalpen ranges from Lechtaler Alpen to Karwendelgebirge, seen from Patscherkofel (Stage 13)
Note Throughout this guide the English spelling of Tyrol is used, except for proper nouns such as ‘Count of Tirol’, ‘Sankt Johann in Tirol’ or ‘Tirol Werbung’, where the German Tirol is used.
The Adlerweg
The Adlerweg is a project promoted by Tirol Werbung (the state tourism promotional organisation) to encourage walkers to explore more of the region. It came to fruition in 2005 with the opening of the main route between Sankt Johann in Tirol, in the east of Tyrol, and Sankt Anton am Arlberg, on the western border with Voralberg. The route has no ‘new’ paths, being a series of existing paths and tracks linked by common signposting, usually by means of adding an Adlerweg motif to existing signposts.
The 23 stages of the main route have varying degrees of difficulty, although none requires climbing skills or equipment. Four of the stages are graded ‘black’ (difficult), although these have parallel easier alternatives. In addition, the Adlerweg makes use of the Lechtaler Alpen Hohenweg (high-level route) to provide a challenging alternative to the stages through the Lechtal valley.
There is, however, a political dimension to the project. Tirol Werbung is funded by regional government and by payments from all of the local government areas (gemeinde) in the region. As a result, there was pressure to ensure the route visited as many gemeinde as possible. This has had two effects. Firstly, the route makes occasional deviations to visit villages off the direct route (Steinberg am Rofan in Stages 6/7 is the most obvious example). Secondly, the project was extended by the addition of 88 regional paths that form a series of legs running off the original route, thus taking the Adlerweg name into many other parts of Tyrol.
As a result, a degree of confusion has crept in. Mapmakers have been encouraged to add ‘Adlerweg’ or the eagle motif to their maps of the region. This has been done without discriminating between main route, easier variants, alpine high route and regional extensions, with ‘Adlerweg’ now popping up all over the map, making it difficult to identify the correct route. Furthermore, there are path junctions where both forks are signposted as Adlerweg!
One aspect of the Adlerweg that stands out, making it different from most other long-distance paths, is the use made of various modes of public transport to speed access to and descent from the mountains. As a result you will encounter three cablecars,
